William I can't think of clever titles...help me out!

Bonjour!

Guess what??? I'm finished with classes...meaning I'm also finished with school forever! Woohoo! I never thought this day would come...but its here! I've accomplished so much while I've been here...just a few things:

1. Made friends from all over the world
2. Improved in French immensely...my english is a little spotty now lol
3. Learned that it's okay if I don't take a shower everyday
4. Tried 4 million different kinds of cheese...and loved them all!
5. Learned to make an effort with the hair/clothing everyday (luckily I have the most comfortable flats in the world)

I'm going to miss everyone so much, and wish I could continue studying with them until December. I LOVED my host family, and was so sad to say goodbye to Thérèse today. I love France...sigh

Being done with school also means that its time for Ashley and I to start our European adventure. First stop: Paris! Today I leave Angers, France at 4:30pm and get into Paris at about 6pm. Then Ashley and I are going to meet up at Gare du Nord, grab a bite to eat, and crash on a guy name Marc's couch. This will be our first couchsurfing.com experience, so I pray to god it goes well. I also found out that a fellow UofOer is travelling in the same vicinity as us, so that will be good if we want to meet up and travel or whatnot. On October 3rd/4th we'll be in Munich for Oktoberfest, and I'm hopefully meeting up with my friend Katelyn there. On Sunday we're meeting up with Katie in Paris, so that'll be fun too! I love all the new friends I've made!

Sorry this post is so scatter-brained, but I'm just really nervous about travelling. Wish me luck!

Itinerary
septembre 26-27: Paris
septembre 28-octobre 2: Travelling/Dresden/Berlin
octobre 3-4: Munich
???

Today I had a lot of time to kill so I also signed Ashley and I up for helpx.net and applied at 10 different places in Italy to work for a week or two. This is a great website, and if it works out then Ashley and I will be working for a family and eating and sleeping for free! Yay!

In the mean time here are some more pictures:

A group of us got together for one of my last nights in Angers! I'm going to miss them (but will see them again at the end of October).

I'll update in Paris if I survive the night!

Très occupée!

Desolée for not updating sooner - I have been soooo busy this last week! I'm getting very stressed about my upcoming travels (and stressing out my travel companion as well I'm sure) and I've had tests, excursions, side trips, etc. etc. So, what have I been up to?

*Bibliothèque Anglophone -
In Angers there is an American Library where international students like myself can go to check out English books and where French people who are learning English can go to speak and learn. Last week a friend in the program and I went to play board games and eat pizza with the french, and we ended up being the only ones there who were native English speakers! It was kind of fun to explain different American expressions to them and feel educated for the first time in the last 3 weeks. Tonight a friend Katelyn and I are going to watch "All the King's Men" in English and have a discussion with the french. Lol I like how I call them "the french".

*Transportation -
Getting around in Angers has been crazy because they are putting in a tramway, so there is always a lot of traffic and the main streets have been backed up. It is amazing how narrow the streets are here and how close cars come to hitting other cars, people, etc. I've been using the bus since I live outside of town, and that hasn't been too bad. I also walk a lot too, so that's been nice considering all the cheese I have been eating! Speaking of, I've gone on 4 runs since I've been here, and eating enough food to feed a small country...not good.

*Excursions -
We've gone to eat in a cave, see 3 chateaux, and seen prehistoric rocks. I'll explain more later, but here are some pictures:

Me and some friends at the Mushroom Museum Restaurant...underground!

Chateau no. 1, 2 and 3

My two besties James and Katelyn à la plage in Carnac...it was so pretty that day!

Chris!

Boring rocks with no real history...just being honest people.

More updates later!

St-Michel et Malo

Bonjour, ça va? Pour moi, ça va mal. Pourquoi? Because I've had a cold for 5 freaking days and it won't go away and it's driving me NUTS! All I want to do is sleep, I cough all the time and I've got this flem thing going that is just disgusting. However, I refuse to spend 22£ on the doctor, so I've been sucking on Hall's coughdrops, getting aspirin from Térèse and drinking A LOT of water. Other people in my program are sick too, so luckily I have people to complain with :)

D'ACCORD, back to business. It's 8:42am here, and I'm waiting for class to start. Today's schedule looks like this, in case you were interested:

9:30am - 11:40am: Langue
11:50am - 12:45pm: Laboratoire
12:45pm - 1:45pm - Lunch
1:45pm - 2:40pm: Langue
2:45pm - 3:40pm: Comprehension Orale
3:45pm - 4:40pm: Expression Orale

In my expression orale class Katelyn (a friend and classmate of mine) have to give a fake weather report. Bah. Class is really long, and I feel like I'm in high school again. I'm just looking forward to tomorrow's excursion: L'Anjou Troglodytique! We get to go and tour these cave-type homes that people live in by carving into soft rock. After that, we are all eating at a restaurant in one of the caves, and are being served a 5-course meal...all with mushrooms as the base! Yum yum. Speaking of excursions, let me tell you about the ones I've been on already:

Puy du Fou -
Well, I can't really explain this one too well because the whole time I had NO idea what was going on. It took one hour to get there and it felt like we were way out in the country. When we pulled into the parking lot, there were a bunch of other buses too...all filled with senior citizens. lol We were seriously the youngest there. There was stadium seating, and it reminded me a lot of the memorial coliseum, except it was outside. There was a narrator, and a lot of fighting and sad music, then a lot of dancing and happy music, and the weather was FREEZING cold and windy...and I don't know. I'll have to post a video I took because the setting was a castle over a fake lake that horses would walk across and yeah...I'm really at a loss for words on this one.

Mont St-Michel et St Malo -
This I can tell you about! On Sunday we went to Mont St-Michel and St-Malo, and it was terrific! Here are some pictures:

This is the view from the top. Isn't it amazing? St-Michel is an island that's surrounded by sand and a small amount of water. Way back when, you would not be able to reach the island because at high tide the little strip of land was covered in water.

Funny story: After touring the church and walking around St-Michel, we all sat down to eat lunch. There were seagulls all around us, and a classmate named James kept throwing bread on the ground so the seagulls could get it but it was so windy that the seagulls couldn't get the bread and ended up just floating above it. I think the birds were mad that James was teasing them, because they attempted to poop on him but landed on my baguette instead! I saw something drop and looked down to see my baguette covered in poop....alors, I screamed and threw it on the ground. The funniest part about it was that it got ONLY on my sandwich and nowhere else...not on my hand that was holding the sandwich, my clothes, nothing! lol I was laughing so hard.

After that little experience, we headed to St Malo and when the sun finally came out I took some great pictures:

It's too bad the sun came out at the end of the trip, otherwise I would have been all over that beach! St-Malo is a walled city, and so we took some time walking around the outside...

...and then went down to the streets and window-shopped for awhile. We also got crepes...yum yum! St-Malo was very beautiful, but very expensive as well.

Well, I must go finish up a project now, but until later!

Things to know:
*Don't piss off seagulls...they'll get ya back.

Chateau d'Angers

Yay, I'm back and here to tell you more about my adventures in France! Let's see...where did we leave off...

Ah yes, school. Taking classes here is both a good and bad thing. The good thing is I'm learning the rules of the French language and am able to practice it a lot. The bad thing is that I'm in class from 9:30am to 5:00pm and have no time to explore the city or be on my own. And since September is a really busy month because we go on like 2 excursions a week, I'm a slave to the university. à mon dieu! Fortunately I like all my teachers and classmates, so there is no problem there. My university is an international school, so there are people from so many different countries in my class: Mexico, Canada, Russia, Hungary, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the US (Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi). Networking opportunities!

My first mini-trip was a tour of Chateau d'Angers, and it was pretty cool to go inside and see all the tapestries they have on display and the beautiful gardens. I can't believe how much history there is! Luckily, we had a woman from U of O who has her masters in medievil studies come to visit and give us a guided tour. Here are some pictures from the tour:

This is the view of the chateau from the street. I see this everyday when I go to school!

Beautiful gardens

4 of the 17 turrets that surround the outside

A small garden on the inside

Afterwards, we were walking around and I took this picture of the view of the Maine River at the top of the hill in Angers:
I absolutely love it here! More updates later...

The Berthelots

My goodness have I been busy! I'm sorry for not posting sooner, it has been crazy around here with school starting and all the excursions! Anyways, where did we last leave off?...

So I LOVE LOVE LOVE my host family. There are a lot like my Grandma and Papa, and make me feel like I am part of their family. Their names are Thérèse and Jean Berthelot. They actually don't live in Angers, but a suburb outside the city called Avrillé. I really like it out there, but unfortunately its a 45-minute bus ride to school every morning. But I enjoy living with them so much it does't matter. Both of them are retired, and both volunteer at hospitals and bring meals to sick people. What great people! Here are some pictures of their house:

This is their kitchen...so cute!

Their living room/dining room

I told them how I bake and they were very interested, and asked me to make them something, so I made them a tart!

Strawberry Kiwi tart I made for tea

Enjoying the tart! From left to right: my site director Sue, roommate Krista, host mom Térèse, host dad Jean, roommate Blythe

I know you all want to know about the food...and it has been amazing! Every night Térèse cooks us something new. My favorite so far has been the carrot soup...it sounds gross I know, but it is delicious! The French eat very different from Americans. First of all, things are served one at a time. So when we sit down to dinner, we will start with the entrée (which is an appetizer) of shredded carrots or ham or cabbage or tomatoes and eggs or soup or anything really. Then after that we have the plat principal (main dish), which has been everything from zucchini stuffed with cheese and meat to pizza to les tomates farcies (tomatoes stuffed with pork)! This is served with some type of vegetable as well. THEN, after that we have our cheese course...lots of different types of cheese to put on the baguette (baguette is served throughout the whole meal...I probably eat 1/2 a baguette a day!). And I've tried so many different types of cheeses, and I have no idea what they are called but I loved them all :) Also, dinner takes about an hour or more to eat because there is actual conversation and people aren't wolfing down their food. I like it a lot.

At school lunch is served the same way, but it's not as good. It's very much like cafeteria food, but I eat it anyways because by the time lunch rolls around I'm starving because my breakfast usually consists of a piece of toast with jam and coffee.

Unfortunately I have to go to class now, but I PROMISE I'll update later about school, excursions and friends I've made! A tout à l'heure!

Things to know:
*People here don't waste anything, even if they can afford to. Take note America.

Minding the gap!

Alright, here I am again writing to you as I sit in the computer lab of the Université Catholique de l'Ouest in the beautiful city of Angers, France. Because j'ai la gueule de bois, I will keep my travel stories short and to the point...but let you know how much I love it here! Alors, let's begin:

Peggster dropped me off at SFO and I caught my first plane to Denver. At the airport in Denver everything was fine and dandy until they called me up to the service desk (horribly mispronouncing my name of course). The clerk said he typed in my baggage claim number wrong and had to retype it in. Then he realized that he typed it in right and gave himself a high-five (not joking), all the while I'm FREAKING out because that means the bag they grabbed to put on the flight to London wasn't mine. The only reassurance he gave me was: "We'll try to find your bag and get it on the plane before you take off. If it's not there when you get to London, just file a claim". I was in such shock at the prospect of not having my bag that I said 'okay' and walked away. Luckily when I landed in London, my bag was there...PHEW! I feel very lucky, especially after hearing a story yesterday about a girl who came to Angers to study for one month (like me) and her luggage got lost...and it took 2 weeks to get it back to her! So half of the time she was there, she didn't have any of her stuff! No thanks.


Anyways, after getting my luggage I found my way to the Tube and took the Picadilly line to St. Pancras International. I love the tube! It's so fast and easy to use, and I loved the British woman's recording: "Please mind the gap" love it! I was admiring all the scenery on the way to St. Pancras, and then realized how similar everything looked to the setting of 28 weeks later and I got a little scared...lol

I made it to the train station but missed my train to Paris Nord by 2 minutes, so I bought myself a Cadbury chocolate bar and people-watched for a few hours. I absolutely love the way European women dress! I definitely feel like my personal style is going to change after being over here - no more Old Navy flip flops and sweatpants pour moi! lol I finally got to Paris, and just made the next train to Angers. After travelling for 24 hours, I made it!!! I'll blog more about my host family in un moment.

Things to know:
*The food on British Airways is horrible, and unfortunately they give you a lot of it too. Don't eat it.
*To get to the Eurostar train station from London Heathrow Airport, take the Picadilly Line (color-coded as navy blue) to King's Cross/St. Pancras.
*Be AT LEAST 30 minutes early for the train at St. Pancras International. It's much like the airport.